May 15 : The government has been able to mobilize just around 28 percent of the total capital budget in the first 10 months of the current fiscal 2019-20.
Of the total capital budget of Rs 408 billion, it spent a mere Rs 114.1 billion or 27.97 per cent during the review period, according to the statistics prepared by the Financial Comptroller General Office (FCGO).
This is attributed to the failure on the part of the government to expedite development projects in the initial months of the current fiscal year and the obstacles in carrying out development activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic in recent months.
With the development and construction activities coming to a screeching halt owing to the pandemic-induced lockdown, the government is sure to miss its development budget spending target significantly this year.
In fact, the mobilization of capital expenditure this year is likely to be lower than in the two previous fiscal years- 2014-15 and 2015-16.
As a result of the devastating earthquakes, the government spent just 70 per cent of the total capital budget allocated for 2014-15. Similarly, the volume of capital expenditure was confined to 56.3 per cent of in fiscal 2015-16 due to the Indian economic embargo.
